A Break-In at the Office? Time to Refortify Your Security

Homes and residences security are not the only targets as far as break-ins are concerned. Numerous break-ins also occur at the offices and commercial locations.

Needless to say, whether occurring at home, at the office or elsewhere, break-ins can be a terrifying experience. Even if you’re lucky enough not to be present at the time of the break-in, the shock of entering a space that has been broken into is enough to really shake anyone’s sense of security.

Why Break-ins Occur

The crime rate today naturally plays a role in the occurrence and frequency of break-ins. There are a lot of things people can to do in order to drastically mitigate their chances of being robbed. Increasing security is one of them.

A lack of security is always an incentive for criminals to attack and break into a particular location. This being said, there are times when despite having certain security measures in place, you might fail to prevent a break-in which brings us to what this blog is about.

Post Break-in Pointers

After a break-in, especially one that occurred despite numerous security precautions, there are two things you need look after.

The first is assessment and analysis of your current or existing security arrangements. The second is rectification and refortification of the same.

Assessment

As we mentioned, assessing the security measures you have in place is the first thing you need to do. The fact that they failed to prevent a break-in does not indicate to the entire setup being useless.

The idea is to carefully analyze what you already have in place by way of security. This is so that you can clearly determine where your current measures fell short. As a result, you will have a clearer picture of what you might need to do to fill in the gaps.

When assessing your existing security measures, here are some of the questions you can ask yourself:

How Much Emphasis do you Place on Security?

The first question you want to ask yourself is how much of a priority security is at your office or space. Do you have any pre-ordained measures in place? Are those measures implemented and adhered to or do they just stand as clauses on a set of procedures?

Simply having security measures in place is no good if they aren’t followed or paid attention to.

What Physical Steps have you Taken to Ensure Your Office Is Secure?

This is an important thing to look into in order to analyze where security fell short. Physical steps would include locks, entrance re-enforcements, cameras, and other alarm systems.

That being said, it is your entrance locks that are most important here and it is important to see which locks you were using. Making note of what condition those locks were in is also crucial.

Are There Easy Access Points Where Security is not as Stringent?

Looking into potential weak points in your physical security is also important. We’re talking everything from backdoors to windows to fire escapes. A burglar will look for the easiest access point available and in many cases this might not be your main door or entrance.

What if anything was Stolen?

Determining what was stolen will give you a sense of what areas of your office and what items are under the greatest risk of theft. This should also give you insight as to which areas require reinforcement.

Who Has Access?

Last but not least, you need to look into who has access to your office space just to make sure there was no internal involvement. Look into which individuals have unrestricted access to the space you are using. Determine whether said individuals are trustworthy or not.

Once you have addressed all the questions above, it is time to move to the next step; reinforcement of office security measures.

Refortifying Office Security

Once the parameters above are clear, it is time to start refortifying your office security to avoid any further damages that could potentially occur.

Here are a few things you will most definitely need to look into:

Primary Access Points

The first thing you want to do is have all your main or prime access points refortified. This would mean a complete change of locks. This is especially for those which are old or easy to break into. It might make sense to replace regular locks at your prime access points with high security locks.

Understanding the patterns of traffic at your establishment is helpful here. You may sometimes need to have two locks installed. A possible combination could be an electric key lock for high traffic hours and a secondary high security lock for when the office is closed.

Secondary Access Points

These include windows, fire escapes and backdoors, among others, as mentioned earlier. If you feel the locking systems around these access points are insufficient, make sure you have them replaced with more reliable or sturdier locks.

In many cases, it is these access points that are used to break in as main entrances are well fortified for the most part.

Also, ensure that existing locks or locking mechanisms in these access points are not old and worn out.

Surveillance

Installing security cameras around your office might be a good idea for two reasons. The first is the obvious fact that you will have on record any activity that takes place after hours or when you are not around.

The second and less obvious reason is that the simple presence of security cameras serves as a deterrent. Even people with malicious intent are less likely to act out when they see cameras running nearby.

Layout

Your office layout plays an important role. Even if one does manage to bypass your primary security measures, the right layout can slow down or even make it near impossible for a burglar to do the damages they intended to!

Reinforcing security around areas where sensitive information, material or earnings may be stored is key. This can be done by adding divisions and installing stronger locks in areas that might have previously been open access.

Implementation

Finally, if you found that prior to the break-in, security rules were in place but not implemented, it makes sense to stress on the same.

Ensure that all regulations placed by way of security are followed to the tee. Convey to those working with you why this is important and see that protocols and procedures are adhered to.

Upshot

A careful analysis of where your original security setup fell short, accounting for where you could improve on it and proceeding to implement the desired changes is the best way to refortify your security post a break-in.

If damages have already been done that is indeed unfortunate. That being said, this is no cause for you to sit back and wallow in your losses. Be proactive and make sure no one gets the better of you or your property again.

For those of you looking for a professional locksmith service in NYC that could greatly benefit your security set up, we’ve got you covered. We provide 24 Hour Locksmith Services in NYC and offer our clients a range of electronic and high security lock options among others. Check out what we’ve got or give us a shout for more info!